Data Literacy
Can your students read a meme but not a graph? We’ve got you covered. These classroom-ready resources help you empower students to build data-literacy skills. Dive into data explorations and data-focused articles that cover a wide range of topics and prepare students to make sense of statistics no matter the source.
How to Teach Data Literacy: Tools for Teachers
Data Literacy Guide
Clear, concise strategies to help teach data literacy and build student confidence with data visualizations.
Three-Step Reading for Data
This handy tool can be used with any data visualization.
A Guide to Reading Charts
A reference for building the important skill of learning to read and evaluate charts.
Data Literacy Strategies
Timelines, maps, and graphs help historians see change over time.
Teach Tomorrow: Data Literacy Lesson Plans
Lesson 2.2
Direct Impacts of Climate Change
This lesson use maps, infographics, and a deep dive into the research behind sea-level rise data to help students understand the many ways that climate change is reshaping our lives.
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Lesson 1.1.6
The Evidence of Climate Change
How do we know climate change is happening? Dive into the charts in the article to find the evidence, then put the claims to the test in the activity that follows.
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Lesson 9.4.2
Accelerating Population Growth
Use this article and activity to explore historical population trends from 1500 to the present and evaluate how growing human communities have changed our planet.
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Data Literacy Activities and Resources for Deeper Learning
Mapping the World
Activity
Mapping the World
How has industrialization accelerated change for better and worse? Using data can help you answer this question.
Data Exploration: Urbanization
Article
Data Exploration: Urbanization
Most humans live in cities today. Yet for most of our history, this was not the case. The shift to cities is a long story, but it’s one that accelerated quite recently.
The Fallen
Video
The Fallen
World War II was devastating on a scale never seen before. This video uses data to reveal the staggering human cost of the war.
Resources to Connect Climate Change and Data Literacy
Data Investigation: Transportation
Activity
Data Investigation: Transportation
It’s electric! Or is it? Explore the data to decide for yourself how climate change will impact transportation in the future.
How Do We Know Climate Change Is Real?
Article
How Do We Know Climate Change Is Real?
Dig into four charts about global temperatures, emissions, and the correlation between them.
Who Caused Climate Change?
Infographic
Who Caused Climate Change?
Explore historical, current, and per capita emissions to determine which nations have the most responsibility to act.
Correlation vs. Causation
Activity
Correlation vs. Causation
This exercise helps you understand the difference between correlation and causation and practice using them as tools to evaluate information.
Climate Impacts: Sea-Level Rise
Article
Climate Impacts: Sea-Level Rise
This data exploration focuses on global sea-level rise—its connections to greenhouse gas emissions and the ways it threatens human communities all over the world.
Mapping a Climate Future
Activity
Mapping a Climate Future
Investigate data through climate maps to visualize what extreme heat looks like now, and what scientists predict it will look like in the future.
